THE NATIONAL REGISTER of BIG TREES 2000-01

American Forests, Spring, 2000 by Katie Byrne

Nothing's ever surefire when it comes to big tree hunting, but your adds are better if you check out old cemeteries and old homes, he says. Often those trees reflect what was popular during a certain time period, and you may find trees there that were not planted anywhere else.

Zyla has hunted dawn examples of most of the approximately 150 native and introduced species in Calvert County. His name appears in the National list next to two trees in Maryland: the swamp white oak in Clinton and the ca-champ peach in Lusby.

North Dakota's Optimistic Hunter

--Michelle Robbins

Some might say Bob Kloubec has a thankless job. As a tree hunter in Minnesota and North Dakota, his chances of finding a national champion are slim: Those two states have just two champs between them.

ROBERT KLOUBEC

That's not how Kloubec sees it. His passion for trees has taken him across the country and deep into near by forests. His efforts have been rewarded with 11 North Dakota state champions and one Minnesota state champ, making him "Mr. Tree," according to Glendo Fauske, AMERICAN FORESTS' Big Tree coordinator and the information and education coordinator for the North Dakota Forest Service.

"When you get involved with trees, you know Bob--and in a good way," Fouske says. "He's such a nice guy. He's worked with trees and landscaping pretty much his whole life. When he finds an interesting tree, he'll send a picture or an article, and he knows before any of the staff if a tree dies ar gets sick."

Kloubec, 73, lives near the North Dakota-Minnesota border. He attributes his love of nature to his father, a passionate gardener who kept "all kinds of trees," including a junesherry that us a child Koublec says he believed was "fruit from heaven." Later, trees took center stage at Kloubec's job with the Clay County Soil Conservation Service and us a freelance landscape designer.

But Kloubec's search for arboreal giants began in earnest in 1982 after be retired and studied under Big Tree hunter Dale Herman at North Dakota State University. Kloubec contacted state Big Tree coordinators and sought not champs in Oregon, Texas, Washington, and close to home because "it's just a fun thing to do," he says.

Kloubec hunts mostly in winter so he con see deep into the forest canopy. He recommends bringing a friend because "four eyes are better than two." In fact, a friend helped Kloubec uncover his first major had, an American basswood with a 13-foot circumference. That tree, which was "pretty good and big for North Dakota" (the national champ has a 24-foot circumference) would be named the state's champion.

With only 12 inches of rain per year, no endemic trees, and less-than-perfect growing conditions, North Dakota has little chance of snatching a national champion. But if anyone can do it, Fauske says, Kloubec can.

"It would be a big plum to have one on the national list," Kloubec says. "I put out the challenge to everyone to find it."

Janine Guglielminio

ED RICHARDSON

Connecticut's Identification Guru

Ed Richardson can measure his retirement in inches. That's because in the 12 years he's been a volunteer with Connecticut's Notable Trees program, he's measured more than 1,000 potential champion trees.